Urgency Flow | Weblog

Pioneers in Project Execution Management

Roel Smelt — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:52:02 PDT

Project Execution Management may seem new but it actually builds upon the work of many pioneers. These pioneers not only demonstrated that managing execution is the key to "faster, better and cheaper" but also made revolutionary contributions to it:

Henry Ford: Assembly Line Production
Taichi Ohno: Lean Manufacturing (Kanban + Kaizen)
Southwest Airlines: Lean Services (achievements include 20-minute turnaround of planes)
Wal-Mart: Lean Supply Chain Management
Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt: Buffer Management Systems (Drum-Buffer-Rope, Make-To-Availability and Critical Chain) for high variability operations

Source: Execution Management Minute

Entrepreneurship in and after the Crisis: Rules of the Game, #1

Roel Smelt — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 06:56:06 PDT

The current economical crisis sets new rules for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs need to play by new rules to survive this crisis. If played well by these rules, they will not only survive this crisis, but also be successful in 2-3 years. In this blog, some of the rules will be explained.

First Rule:
Low Investments, High output.

Why? The investors of the old era are heavily damaged. Banks have suffered big financial losses as well as big losses of trust. Banks will have to work hard the coming years, to make up the big financial losses and to recover the trust.
This means that big, risky loans will not be available the coming years. Entrepreneurs have to build on low investments since no big bags of money are available.
The current markets have fallen, and now they are taking only little steps to crawl up again. This rhythm needs to be mirrored in the way business is done. Low investment, fast and high return on investment. This creates confidence, to take bigger steps in later years.

First European TOCICO Results Conference 2009

Roel Smelt — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:03:46 PDT

Coming 15th to 17th of October the first European TOCICO Results Conference will be held in Amsterdam, the netherlands. This is an International event for those who are interested in the Theory of Constraints and for those who are involved with the application of it in all different fields. Guest of honour is Dr. Eli Goldratt, founder of the Theory of Constraints. Questions and other core subjects of the Theory of Constraints will be answered by Dr. Eli Goldratt as well as many other questions you may have regarding regarding business.
"Managers & Experts of companies of a variety of industries (Retail, Supply Chain, Health, Service Industry) will share their experiences & results with you. You will learn how to raise the interest of your peers and managers to investigate and apply TOC business rules to your organization. You’ll understand the simple measures and learn how to put them into action. Examples, games, simulations and assignments will be presented. You can practice and experience the business impact that the simple TOC measures bring."

More information can be found here..

Testdrive Th!nk City

Roel Smelt — Sat, 23 May 2009 07:12:50 PDT

Yesterday we have made a testdrive with the first commercially available car: the Th!nk City.

Entrepreneurship in and after the Crisis: LILOs

Roel Smelt — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:45:10 PDT

Recently, a great article was published in Time magazine called: “The New Internet Start-Up Boom: Get Rich Slow”. It explains how Internet Entrepreneurs are discovering the ways how despite the crisis, one can build great companies. In the article these start-ups are called: LILOs, for "a little in, a lot out." It almost contains a guide how your start-up should be set-up to be successful. The article can be found here.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Roel Smelt — Sun, 17 May 2009 11:56:32 PDT

A nice video is available where Dr. Goldratt presents how his concept of the TOC solution for operations (DBR) took a different dimension after analysing what Henry Ford and Dr. Taichi Ohno developed for operations. Dr. Goldratt shares the 4 basic steps of flow and how they were also followed by these two giants of industry. After you've looked and listened intensely to this video, you might have seen that this video is recorded in the Netherlands: a typical Dutch street view is visible in the back. :-)

from Toc.tv - Featuring

The Comeback of the Electrical Car?

Roel Smelt — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:28:29 PDT

[PDF] The Comeback of the Electric Car? How Real, How Soon, and What Must Happen Next by Michael Book, Marcus Groll, Xavier Mosquet, Dimitrios Rizoulis, Georg Sticher January 15, 2009

Virtually all leading carmakers are exploring ways to reduce their vehicles' carbon dioxide emissions and increase their fuel efficiency. The most promising option in the near term is alternative power-train technologies. The authors set forth an "electrification path," on which the steps are the mild hybrid, full hybrid, plug-in hybrid, range extender, and, finally, the fully electric vehicle; they then forecast likely markets for each category in 2020 under various scenarios.

Source: [Boston Consulting Group]

Implementing Buffer Management (Prioritizing and Managing Tasks)

Roel Smelt — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:22:16 PDT

Our partner Realization, gives great management how-to's in their monthly Execution Management Minute.

As we discussed before, absence of task level priorities is a major shortcoming in traditional project management. Now that we can issue clear, uniform and stable task
priorities using Rule 3 (tasks consuming the most buffer get the highest priority), what is the management process around them? This is the subject of this minute.

Remaining Duration Reporting
During execution, Task Managers provide daily estimates of how much longer it will take to finish their tasks-in-progress. With this simple information, we can calculate the ratio of buffer consumed for a chain of tasks compared to the work completed in that chain. This ratio is then used to calculate task priorities and provide Task Managers a report of all current and upcoming tasks in order of priority.
(Tendencies to procrastinate and not report early finishes are also curbed. When the buffer consumption ratio is high and visible to everyone, it reminds Task Managers to make and report progress.)
Resource Assignment
Task Managers assign resources to current tasks in order of priority. If resources are not enough to handle even the red tasks (tasks that have crossed the threshold of acceptable buffer consumption), overtime and other such decisions are implemented.
Task Preparation
After taking care of current tasks on their plate, Task Managers turn their attention to upcoming tasks. They make sure that all necessary preparations like getting approvals, drawings, materials etc. are made so that tasks can be executed without interruption when they arrive.
Quick Issue Resolution
By interacting with resources for Remaining Duration updates, Task Managers discover unexpected problems quickly. They now have a chance to resolve them in a timely manner on an ongoing basis instead of fighting fires towards the end.
Reminder: Don’t Pressurize Resources to Meet Planning Estimates
Otherwise you will soon be back to square one.

Implementing and reinforcing good Task Management is the key to sustained improvements in project performance!

Source: [Realization Execution Management Minute]

Why Lean doesn't work

Roel Smelt — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:29:47 PDT

Our partner Realization, gives great management how-to's in their monthly Execution Management Minute.

According to IndustryWeek, 70% of the North American manufacturers have implemented Lean, of which only 25% think that they have made significant improvements. Documented results (impact of Lean on companies’ bottom lines) are few and far in between. Even after so many years, why is the success rate of Lean so low? Especially given the astounding success of Toyota Production System (the source of Lean) in shortening delivery times, reducing inventories and costs, and improving quality?

Lean advocates attribute such failure to lack of top management attention and the peculiarities of American culture. We beg to differ. The real reason for the failure of Lean is that it has been applied inappropriately in three ways:

1. Doing Kaizen Before Kanban:
Lean has two parts, Kaizen (process of continuous local improvement) and Kanban (a process of allocating resources in execution). Most organizations focus on the Kaizen part of Lean whereas most of the benefits come from Kanban. Kaizen can add value but only after Kanban has been implemented.

2. Continuing to Use Local Efficiency Measurements:
Organizations continue to measurements such as labor and machine utilization metrics; per piece cost; and earned value. These measurements continue to promote overproduction or production of the wrong stuff – both of which are nothing but waste.

3. Projects and Low Volume Production:
Even the Kanban process does not work for projects and low volume operations such as job shops and engineer-to-order manufacturing. For projects and low volume operations you need the execution management methods invented by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt (there are two methods, called Drum-Buffer-Rope and Critical Chain Project Management). After implementing Drum-Buffer-Rope or Critical Chain, even Kaizen can yield rewards.

Source: [Realization Execution Management Minute]

Goldratt lectures on the crisis

Roel Smelt — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:55:09 PST

On the 17th of februari, Dr. Eli Goldratt gave an interesting talk on how the business-world should react to the economical crisis. (..) His visit to the United States was precipitated by his distress over the way world business leaders have abandoned common sense. He urged them, instead, to consider the facts. (..) Goldratt believes the world is at the precipice of the “biggest economic boom the human race has ever seen.” As evidence, Goldratt pointed to the rate at which average wages in China and India are outpacing their respective gross domestic product growth.
Read the whole article here..

Source: [SUER: Business dean highlights Goldratt lecture]

Implementing the Buffering Rule (Project Planning)

Roel Smelt — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:58:14 PST

Our partner Realization, gives great management how-to's in their monthly Execution Management Minute.

While it is obvious that project plans are needed to provide execution priorities and early warning signals, many organizations struggle with creating useful and manageable project plans. This minute answers the frequently asked questions about project planning under the new rules:

What comprises an execution ready-project plan
A complete project plan contains the following data:

Tasks, Task Duration and Resource Type/ Resource Units needed for the task
Checklist below the tasks (optional)
Dependencies between tasks
Task Managers
Buffers (feeding buffers; contractual milestone buffers and project buffers)
Resource Types and the Maximum Units of a Resource Type available to the project
Project-end and Contractual Milestone Dates

How much detail is required in the plans? Too many tasks in a project plan induce multitasking, make analysis of plans and buffer consumption difficult and generally lead to loss of control. Not enough detail on the other hand encourages unnecessary safeties and Parkinson’s Law and also leads to loss of control.

Based on our experience in a wide range of projects, more than 300 tasks in a complex project (a task that takes less than 2% of the project’s lead-time must have a very good reason to be in the plan) and less than 10 tasks for a simple project (a task that takes more than 5% of a projects’ lead time must also have a very good reason) are not recommended. If this thumb rule yields tasks that are too long (and thus not useful for Task Managers), then you can use subprojects to zoom into detailed tasks rather than adding tasks to the main project.

A process for creating good plans

(In multi project situation) derive cycle time targets based on throughput goals.
Communicate to all the managers that people will not be measured in execution against the task estimates used in planning.
Assemble a team of project manager and (representative) task managers and conduct a workshop to get their buy-in into the three rules.
Create basic project plans (without buffers)*.
Convert basic project plans into buffered project plans (stagger tasks based on resource availability and insert buffers in the required places).
Challenge and refine assumptions (data) whenever the calculated project cycle time does not match the expected/ desired result.
Share the final project plan with all the task managers so that they understand their tasks as well as the overall plan.

* In repetitive environments, the basic project plans can be stored as templates for future reference.

Source: [Realization Execution Management Minute]

Old economic rule nr. 3

Roel Smelt — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 05:22:42 PST

"by cost-cutting you will save money, and by saving money you will keep more money"

This rule is more a way of thought in any business already for a long time. This will probably still be applied after the financial crisis, because it seems just common sense. Moreover, since the crisis has become bigger, more and more people apply this rule, creating even bigger problems.

It's one of the most common mistakes made nowadays in business and one of the most foolish. Instead of focusing on generating more income in a shorter period of time, businesspeople are busy with spending a lot of time negotiating, just to spend one penny less on a million euro-project.

Implementing the Buffering Rule (Project Planning)

Roel Smelt — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 06:33:48 PST

Tasks, Task Duration and Resource Type/ Resource Units needed for the task
Checklist below the tasks (optional)
Dependencies between tasks
Task Managers
Buffers (feeding buffers; contractual milestone buffers and project buffers)
Resource Types and the Maximum Units of a Resource Type available to the project
Project-end and Contractual Milestone Dates

How much detail is required in the plans? Too many tasks in a project plan induce multitasking, make analysis of plans and buffer consumption difficult and generally lead to loss of control. Not enough detail on the other hand encourages unnecessary safeties and Parkinson’s Law and also leads to loss of control.
Based on our experience in a wide range of projects, more than 300 tasks in a complex project (a task that takes less than 2% of the project’s lead-time must have a very good reason to be in the plan) and less than 10 tasks for a simple project (a task that takes more than 5% of a projects’ lead time must also have a very good reason) are not recommended. If this thumb rule yields tasks that are too long (and thus not useful for Task Managers), then you can use subprojects to zoom into detailed tasks rather than adding tasks to the main project.

A process for creating good plans

(In multi project situation) derive cycle time targets based on throughput goals.
Communicate to all the managers that people will not be measured in execution against the task estimates used in planning.
Assemble a team of project manager and (representative) task managers and conduct a workshop to get their buy-in into the three rules.
Create basic project plans (without buffers)*.
Convert basic project plans into buffered project plans (stagger tasks based on resource availability and insert buffers in the required places).
Challenge and refine assumptions (data) whenever the calculated project cycle time does not match the expected/ desired result.
Share the final project plan with all the task managers so that they understand their tasks as well as the overall plan.

*In repetitive environments, the basic project plans can be stored as templates for future reference.
Source: [Realization Execution Management Minute]

Managerial Habits That Get Results

Roel Smelt — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:00:44 PST

Why do some managers accomplish more than others? Their success seems to have little correlation with their education or pedigree. What they do share, though, are these three habits.

Translate decisions into actionable information. Unless someone acts on them, strategies and decisions are meaningless. Managers that get results translate strategies and decisions into working procedures or action items – and assign them to the appropriate people.
Provide clear priorities. On a daily level, managers who get results also establish clear priorities for the organization and its people. Without clear priorities, people multi-task. This causes even more chaos when multiple people have to collaborate. If the organization is not synchronized, some people waste time waiting for assignments and others waste time working on the wrong assignments.
Follow-up and follow-through. Managers who get results leave nothing to chance. Following up in a disciplined manner not only conveys a sense of urgency but helps these managers identify and quickly resolve issues. And they ALWAYS follow-through on the commitments they make.

Source: Realization Execution Management Minute

The Next big thing: Energy

Roel Smelt — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 08:06:23 PST

To make a blunt statement: Energy will be the next big thing. As the Internet was the big thing for quite some years, Energy will be the next big thing.
There is a change starting in the way we look at energy, and the generation of energy and the availableness of energy.
Energy will be the big topic, the big get-on-the-bus thing. Like the Internet it starts now with a few enthausiasts who know a lot about it, but it isn't marketed yet, it hasn't been distributed to the masses.
When that happened, 'New Energy' will be the thing which changes the world in a way Internet did. It causes a revolt in the way we look at things, and when it has grown full scale, we can't go back, and can't imagine we ever lived without it.

Old economic rule nr.2

Roel Smelt — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:30:09 PST

If a factory can produce more of the same product, it's cost per product will go down. And with lower cost products, profits will be higher.

Seems to be common sense. This rule is still being applied worldwide at a very large scale. A lot of (production)companies think this way. It's just the Economy of scale: "Reduction in cost per unit resulting from increased production, realized through operational efficiencies. Economies of scale can be accomplished because as production increases, the cost of producing each additional unit falls."[1]

This is an old rule, which only works on the bases of knowing the future, of expecting that the future will be the same as the current reality.
Given the fact that markets, demands and customer behaviour does change, and changes much quicker than it used to do, this provides not a solid and sound basis for a profitable strategy.

Old economic rules: Rule nr.1

Roel Smelt — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:49:57 PST

The financial crisis from the banking world, has now become an economical crisis. And this economical crisis is not only an economical crisis, but also a system crisis.

This has a few reasons. The most important reason is, is that our economy is so deeply rooted into the society, that any fundamental economical crisis will grow into a system crisis.
This effect is there, because the economical system has some basic rules from which is operates. Economical rules that used to dominate the systems don't seem to apply any more. In the next blog we'll elaborate more on these rules, and why they are failing.

From financial crisis to economical crisis to system crisis

Roel Smelt — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:55:08 PST

Goldratt's Response to the 2008 Crisis

Roel Smelt — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:01:00 PST

Goldratt’s approach can help companies free up much more cash and generate more profits than any of the current cost-cutting activities will accomplish; and with the same actions, strengthen and begin to immunize companies from future crises.
Length: 9 minutes

Energy4Life

Roel Smelt — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:44:57 PST

Third Generation Energy Sources offer a vast, environmentally friendly and realistic potential to help solve some of the impending and fundamental crises facing our world, and should therefore be developed further in the immediate future.

I. Third generation energy sources are different from more conventional energy sources now in use and are environmentally friendly by nature

Third generation energy sources are based on forces of nature, like magnetism, gravity, high voltage gradients, coriolis forces, etc
Unlike energy from fossil fuels, or nuclear energy (1st generation), and energy from the sun or the wind (2nd generation), 3rd generation energy sources can be harnessed everywhere, and all the time. They do not need to be distributed over long distances to the end user.
Application of these energy sources is very attractive because they are environmentally friendly by nature, are free to use and can be applied in a multitude of applications at any scale (small, medium and large) at any location in the world, without losing it’s effectiveness

II. Contrary to conventional knowledge of physics, these third generation energy sources can be harnessed in a relatively cheap and energy-effective way and promise to be really applicable in our daily lives (today there is sufficient evidence available to that respect)

Some examples are:

Gravity Assisted Power (GAP) technology, by means of the pendulum mechanism, is now being successfully tested and working. Many other energy harnessing inventions have recently surfaced using the pendulum as power transfer-mechanism.
More than a dozen inventions have (recently) surfaced using a wide variety of high voltage (low current) principles to induce a number of important chemical reactions in a highly efficient way (for instance: water to hydrogen and oxygen, cold cracking of crude oils, plasma guided flue gas purification from SOx and NOx)
Many inventions feature the smart use of the Coriolis force as a means of harvesting energy from rotating systems.
A number of inventions have recently surfaced using permanent magnets (neodymium) as a source of energy.

Flow

Roel Smelt — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 12:52:35 PDT

In this monthly blog, we present you with a quote or a oneliner which stands for the fundamental beliefs of Urgency Flow.
This months quote comes again from the founder of the Theory of Constraints and Critical Chain Project Management, Dr. Eli Goldratt.

"… what some would call academic-resource optimization, sequence optimization, investment optimization. I call them irrelevant." -- Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt

Quite a provocative quote, but it points out to one of the essential principles of TOC: local optimization doesn't necessary lead to global optimization. With the Theory of Constraints managers will try to look at the whole, and see how to improve the whole of the system, instead of gaining only local improvements.

Quote of the Month 2:
Dr. Eli Goldratt

Roel Smelt — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:07:58 PDT

Putting the Pipelining Rule into Practice

Roel Smelt — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 05:36:35 PDT

The importance of doing business in a honest way is grossly underestimated these days. People tend to think that honesty in business isn't very relevant since marketing and promotion would be only about deceiving the customer, to trick them into buying things. This is not true for all forms of business, and here we'll make a case for the importance of honesty in business.

If, for instance, it gets know that somebody isn't honest in the way he or she does business, his or her reputation will dry up quickly, because this person isn't trustworthy any more.
Once the reputation is gone, customers will leave and not come again. Once there are no more customers, there is no more income. No more income means the end of the organization.

People know this, it's not something new. But, it also works the other way around. If somebody is always honest in his or her business, this person builds up trust, a good name and a good reputation. And these three factors will attract more customers, because people will know that what this person says is true. And, when more customers are attracted, this also means that more income can be generated.
So, it's very important to always be honest in doing business.
Honesty doesn't mean that there is no room for negotiations. Negotiations still take place, but not with hidden agenda's or a deceptive attitude. Instead it will be done in an open an upright way, where both parties will agree to the deal with full conviction on a stable base.

The importance of honesty in business

Roel Smelt — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:03:42 PDT

Avenir India - Article about Urgency Flow - Published July 2008

Roel Smelt — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 01:31:09 PDT

Urgency Flow was asked some time ago to write an article about a solution to common management problems.
It deals with Critical Chain Project management and the way how Urgency Flow works. It is stressed that there is the need for focus, which springs from either an organization in crisis or from a very ambitious organization. This focus is necessary to make the paradigm shift.
Our partners from India, Avenirco, published this article in their newsletter which will be available on their website. You can also download an excerpt in PDF-format here.

Any Questions about Urgency Flow? Chat with us!

Roel Smelt — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:52:28 PDT

Urgency Flow likes to keep up with the latest technology, and preferravly something "web2". We've installed a 'live-chat' on the site. This means that whenever I'm online and available for questions, you will see this directly on the site.

Quote of the Month: Dr. Eli Goldratt

Roel Smelt — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 08:02:55 PDT

Coming November, the annual TOCICO (Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization) will be held in Las Vegas. The Topic this year is "TOC: Enduring Success". This four day event is designed to offer practical and relevant information on the enduring success achieved with TOC in addition to the latest developments in the body of knowledge. Case studies from around the world will be presented and the Conference will start with a 2 day update workshop by Dr. Eli Goldratt on project management, the thinking process, finance and metrics and supply chain logistics,
Please visit the website for more details at www.tocico.org.

1-4 November 2008 International TOCICO Conference

Roel Smelt — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:28:09 PDT

First Urgency Flow Podcast Online!

Roel Smelt — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:08:08 PDT

We discussed how Critical Chain provides a new set of rules to effectively manage project execution:

Pipeline - Limit the number of projects in execution based on the most limited resources.
Buffer – Allow tasks to be late and strip out safeties hidden inside task estimates.
Buffer Management – Monitor the consumption of buffers to prioritize tasks and provide early warning signals.

Used successfully by private and public sector organizations around the world, Critical Chain is redefining performance standards for project-based operations. 20-40% improvements in throughput and lead times are typical. The ability to deliver projects on time and on target is even more icing on the cake.

It is however a myth that you need to change how people behave (procrastination, multitasking, unnecessary polishing of already finished work, etc.) in order to improve project performance. The reality is that by practicing the following policy changes will be much more productive:

Replace measurements that require individual tasks to finish on time with the ones that drive low work-in-process.
Mandate a minimum amount of protective time in each project, typically 50% of the sum of tasks, to assure uninterrupted flow of work.
Make project due-dates sacrosanct, to be changed only by senior management.

Yes, you might get some initial successes by focusing on behaviors, but they won’t last. More importantly, changing behaviors in a large organization can take forever. Instead, institutionalizing these new Critical Chain based management policies will change behaviors on their own much faster. Behaviors will change gradually in response to these new management policies, which then will enhance the results even further.

Source: Execution Management Minute from Realization

Attack Policies, not behaviour

Roel Smelt — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:24:42 PDT

We discussed how Critical Chain provides a new set of rules to effectively manage project execution:

Pipeline - Limit the number of projects in execution based on the most limited resources.
Buffer – Allow tasks to be late and strip out safeties hidden inside task estimates.
Buffer Management – Monitor the consumption of buffers to prioritize tasks and provide early warning signals.

Replace measurements that require individual tasks to finish on time with the ones that drive low work-in-process.
Mandate a minimum amount of protective time in each project, typically 50% of the sum of tasks, to assure uninterrupted flow of work.
Make project due-dates sacrosanct, to be changed only by senior management.

Project Flow 2008

Roel Smelt — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:21:41 PDT

When diving into Getting things done(GTD), you'll see that there is a lot to be found on the internet about this technique. Just an example, there is this site, which has over one hundred links to gtd-related pages. What you probably want to do, to get a grip, is return to the source: 'Getting things done' is the name of the book David Allen first published in 2002. It's easy to read and comes with good examples and explains why to work in this way. You can order it here.

If you're interested in the theoretical (philosophical/psychological background) thought behind GTD: we suggest you to read the book "Ready for Anything" by David Allen, which can be found here.

Great techniques: “Getting things done”, part 2

Roel Smelt — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 04:18:52 PDT

Where we go - Urgency Flow's worldwide availability

Roel Smelt — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 04:16:12 PDT

Goldratt Consulting have created a place where they share a variety of videos related to Theory of Constraints, from Eli Goldratt talking about various aspects of the TOC concepts to other demonstrations of successful implementations of the principles. Some of the videos are available for free, others are paid content. The Free section includes testimonials, excerpts, presentations and question and answer sessions. The paid section includes detailled explanations by dr. Goldratt, as well as a pay-per-view movie of "the goal" the most famous book of Goldratt.

TOC.tv, video resource for Theory of Constraints related movies

Roel Smelt — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 04:12:25 PDT

One thing should be clear to any of my potential customers: Our interventions will cause a shift in paradigm. A new way of thinking and dealing with project management are needed to reach the targets we set ourselves. It's not an implementation program, which delivers a 5% cost-reduction, with an occasional increased profit-margin. Lots of companies can do this.
Urgency Flow aims at significant results. Not a cost-reductions, but significant higher netto-profit, by increasing throughput. We are talking about 30 to 40%, within a period of only 6 months! This results are possible because the focus is on a shift in paradigm.

Shift in Paradigm

Roel Smelt — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:04:17 PDT

Characteristics of Consultants

Roel Smelt — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:22:01 PDT

They are never alone
Most of the time, it starts with one consultant, which helps your organization. But when they propose their plans, another consultant is needed for the execution. And another, and another. Then another consultant is needed to keep track of the other consultants. They are never alone.
They produce hours, not value
Most consultants nowadays, are paid per hour. So, the more hours a consultant 'works', the more money he earns.
Is there any reason for a consultant then, to finish a project earlier than planned? An early finish means that the consultant will get paid less! Because by finishing the project earlier, he will not be able to produce that many hours, and thus, receives less money. An hourly-paid consultant is interested in producing more hours, because he will earn more. He's not interested in creating value, because it will not have direct result on his bill.
They are difficult to get rid of
Another result from their hourly-based fees, is that there is an interest from the consultants point of view, to be able to produce more hours, even after the initially set time is over. Thus they will try to make the organization dependent on them. A consultant does this by keeping certain knowledge or skills to themselves, so that, for the continuity of the organization, continuity of the contracted consultant is needed.

How Time Gets Wasted During Project Execution

Roel Smelt — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:46:32 PDT

In the last minute we established that to suceed in projects, managers must focus on time efficiency rather than resource efficiency. A natural question is, “how can we squeeze projects for time when it is difficult to meet even current timelines?”
After all, projects are full of uncertainties: work takes longer than planned; technical issues come up; vendors are late; approvals get held up; resources are not available as promised... no matter how painstakingly you plan, you will always get surprises in execution!
However, a closer look reveals that rather than uncertainties themselves, the real problem is how we manage them.

Management Mistake 1: Starting projects ASAP. Project managers compete aggressively for shared resources. They start their project as soon as possible, hoping that it will maximize their chances of securing resources. In reality, the exact opposite happens – resources get spread thin, queues increase and projects take much longer than they should.

Management Mistake 2: Managers treat planning estimates as execution commitments. This means the estimates have to include safety time to account for all the uncertainties. Thus, project plans become longer.
Unfortunately in execution, while most tasks finish on time, almost none of the tasks finish early (a.k.a. Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill the time available). To compound, some tasks still take longer than planned, causing the entire project to still be late! Bottom line: local commitments only prolong the project without significantly increasing on-time delivery.

Management Mistake 3: The absence of good task level priorities in execution. Not knowing what to do and when, resources getting pulled in divergent directions; project managers compound this confusion by pressurizing resources to multitask (work on their tasks without completing other projects’ tasks). Rather than helping, multitasking actually causes all projects to be stalled.
Our experience with over 200 organizations is that 30-50% of the time and capacity in projects are wasted due to traditional management practices. Fortunately, managers no longer need to feel bound by these traditions. The Critical Chain method provides a new set of rules for managing project execution. And that will be the topic of our next minute.

Source: [Realization Execution Management Minute, Issue May 21, 2008]

Creating Lasting Support

Roel Smelt — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:12:58 PDT

We hope you've already familiar with "Getting things done" by David Allen. We also hope that you've already implemented the "getting things done-strategy" in your day to day life, and that you've found in it a very good system for personal effectiveness.
Than, you can agree, that it is a great tool, which helps as "advanced common sense" in day to day life, and in your business life as well.
In case you are not familiar with Getting things done yet, you can start here, and we would also suggest you to go here and to start implementing it for personal effectiveness.
In case you already are trying to implement Getting things done,
the GTD-diagram might help you, or if you really want your dose
of David Allen, click here.

Great techniques: "Getting things done"

Roel Smelt — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:11:48 PDT

Great Inspirators: Paul "Red" Adair

Roel Smelt — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:02:54 PDT

Remember Paul "Red" Adair? He was the renowned oilfield firefighter, who was instrumental in the extinguishing of the Kuwait oil wells.
Why do we think Red adair is so inspiring? There are a lot of similarities between UrgencyFlow's way of managing projects and the way "Red" Adair managed his 'projects'.
Mr. "Red" Adair boasted that none of his employees ever suffered a serious injury, fighting hundreds of dangerous fires. This is also a value UrgencyFlow tries to maintain. Firing employees is not our focus, the security of the employees of the organization is of great importance.
A successful intervention means that the organizations will grow, because of increased demand. And this means that instead of less employees, more employees are needed.

Update of Website

Roel Smelt — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:22:12 PDT

As you might have noticed, we've updated our website and restructured the site quite thoroughly. We've added a page, explaining how we work and added a phone number to our contact-page. This new way of presenting information, should make it much easier for people to get to the right information in just a few clicks.
Let us hear what you think, by clicking here.

Critical Chain Project Management - introduction video

Roel Smelt — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:19:17 PDT

Dr. Lisa Lang has made a nice brief overview on Critical Chain Project Management
In this video she quickly points out a few important aspects of Critical Chain Project management.

Goldratt Webcasts

Roel Smelt — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:16:20 PDT

As you can see, we've also started blogging!
You can subscribe to our blog very easy, by clicking left to this blog on this icon. In this way you will get the latest updates on Urgency Flow. Projects, Sources and Plans will be discussed here, as well as new developments and useful tools. If you want to know what we are up to, just subscribe!

We started blogging!

Roel Smelt — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:28:50 PDT

On the website two pages are added to explain in short the current reality of project management and what the solution is according the Theory of Constraints.

Critical Chain Project Management explained

Roel Smelt — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 03:13:13 PDT

Also known as the 'elevator pitch':

...if your organization is ambitious or in crisis,
I will prove the Theory of Constraints,
in 3 to 5 months as interim manager,
by getting your urgent projects done and
the next ones in flow!

Introduction page ready

Roel Smelt — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:48:38 PST

Also known as the 'elevator pitch':

...if your organization is ambitious or in crisis,
I will prove the Theory of Constraints,
in 3 to 5 months as interim manager,
by getting your urgent projects done and
the next ones in flow!

Urgency Flow | Weblog

Pioneers in Project Execution Management

Entrepreneurship in and after the Crisis: Rules of the Game, #1

First European TOCICO Results Conference 2009

Testdrive Th!nk City

Entrepreneurship in and after the Crisis: LILOs

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

The Comeback of the Electrical Car?

Implementing Buffer Management (Prioritizing and Managing Tasks)

Why Lean doesn't work

Goldratt lectures on the crisis

Implementing the Buffering Rule (Project Planning)

Old economic rule nr. 3

Implementing the Buffering Rule (Project Planning)

Managerial Habits That Get Results

The Next big thing: Energy

Old economic rule nr.2

Old economic rules: Rule nr.1

From financial crisis to economical crisis to system crisis

Goldratt's Response to the 2008 Crisis

Energy4Life

Flow

Quote of the Month 2: Dr. Eli Goldratt

Putting the Pipelining Rule into Practice

The importance of honesty in business

Avenir India - Article about Urgency Flow - Published July 2008

Any Questions about Urgency Flow? Chat with us!

Quote of the Month: Dr. Eli Goldratt

1-4 November 2008 International TOCICO Conference

First Urgency Flow Podcast Online!

Attack Policies, not behaviour

Project Flow 2008

Great techniques: “Getting things done”, part 2

Where we go - Urgency Flow's worldwide availability

TOC.tv, video resource for Theory of Constraints related movies

Shift in Paradigm

Characteristics of Consultants

How Time Gets Wasted During Project Execution

Creating Lasting Support

Great techniques: "Getting things done"

Great Inspirators: Paul "Red" Adair

Update of Website

Critical Chain Project Management - introduction video

Goldratt Webcasts

We started blogging!

Critical Chain Project Management explained

Introduction page ready

Quote of the Month 2:
Dr. Eli Goldratt